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Mul
Ecology & Information ---- Physical Description A full-grown mul stands 6 to 6-1/2 feet tall and weighs 240-300 pounds. They are fair skinned, some-times tending toward a copperish coloration. Their dwarven ancestry gives them a well-muscled frame and an incredible constitution. Mul laborers can perform heavy work for days at a time without stop-ping. Muls have stern facial features. They are un-mistakably human in appearance, though their ears are swept back and slightly pointed. Most muls, whether male or female, have no hair or beard. Personality All gladiators who perform well in the arenas receive some degree of pampered treatment, but muls receive more pampering than others. Some mul gladiators even come to see slavery as an acceptable part of their lives. However, those that acquire a taste of freedom will fight for it. Stoic and dull to pain, muls are not easily intimidated by the lash. Masters are loath to slay or maim a mul who tries repeatedly to escape, although those who help the mul’s escape will be tormented in order to punish the mul without damaging valuable property. Once a mul escapes or earns his freedom, slavery remains a dominant part of his life. Most muls are heavily marked with tattoos that mark his ownership, history, capabilities and disciplinary measures. Even untattooed muls are marked as a potential windfall for slavers: it is clearly cheaper to “retrieve” a mul who slavers can claim had run away, than to start from scratch in the breeding pits. Relations Born as they are to lives of slave labor, with the taskmaster's whip taking the place of parents and family, muls are given to a gruff personality and via-lent reactions. Understandably, many never seek friends or companionship but live out their lives in servitude, driven by hatred and spite. Most, how-ever, learn who to trust in the slave pits and who not to, gaining favor and reputation among the other slaves. Most mul laborers master the conventions of slave life, figuring out through painful experience who can be trusted and who cannot. (Muls learn from their mistakes in the slave pits to a greater extent than other races not because they are cleverer, but because unlike slaves of other races they tend to survive their mistakes, while other slave races are less expensive and therefore disposable. Only the most foolish and disobedient mul would be killed. Most masters will sell a problem mul slave rather than kill him.) Their mastery of the rules of slave life and their boundless capacity for hard work allows them to gain favor with their masters and reputation among their fellow slaves. Environment As a collective group, muls have no lands to call their own. Occasionally, escaped muls band together as outlaws and fugitives, because of their common ex–slave backgrounds, and because their mul metabolism makes it easier for them to survive as fugitives while other races cannot keep up. Almost without exception, muls are born in the slave pits of the merchants and nobles of the city‐states. Most are set to work as laborers, some as gladiators, and fewer yet as soldier–slaves. Very few earn their freedom, a greater number escape to freedom among the tribes of ex–slave that inhabit the wastes. Alignment Muls tend towards neutrality with respect to good and evil, but run the gamut with respect to law or chaos. Many lawful muls adapt well to the indignities of slavery, playing the game for the comforts that they can win as valued slaves. A few ambitious lawful muls use the respect won from their fellow–slaves to organize rebellions and strike out for freedom. Chaotic muls, on the other hand, push their luck and their value as slaves to the breaking point, defying authority, and holding little fear for the lash. Magic Muls dislike what they fear, and they fear wizards. They also resent that a wizard’s power comes from without, with no seeming effort on the wizard’s part, while the mul’s power is born of pain and labor. Mul wizards are unheard of. * Revision Psionics Since most slave owners take steps to ensure that their property does not get schooled in the Way, it is rare for a mul to receive any formal training. Those that get this training tend to excel in psycho-metabolic powers. Religion Even if muls were to create a religion of their own, as sterile hybrids, they would have no posterity to pass it on to. Some cities accept muls as templars. Mul clerics tend to be drawn towards the strength of elemental earth. Language & Names Racial Traits ---- Ability Scores Muls have a Strength score bonus of +2, and a Constitution score bonus of +1. Muls also have a Charisma penalty of -1. Speed Muls move at a base speed of 30. Size Muls are a Medium sized creature. Darkvision Muls can see in the dark up to 30 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but is otherwise like normal sight, and muls can function just fine with no light at all. Keen Senses You are proficient in the Perception skill. Inexhaustible As an action, you may reduce your exhaustion by one level. You cannot use this feature again until after you have taken a long rest. Relentless Endurance When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You cannot use this feature again until after a short or long rest. Untiring When you take a long rest, and you regain spent Hit Dice, you may add your Proficiency Bonus to the number of dice gained, the number of dice gained can never be more than your maximum number of Hit Dice. Additionally, while you must still use a long rest to recover spent resources, you can choose to go up to 72 hours without taking a long rest, staying awake the entire time, suffering no additional adverse effects. After 72 hours, you are considered to have been awake for 24 hours; you then begin to incur adverse effects as per the normal rules. Languages You can speak Common and Dwarvish. Muls rarely stay in one city long enough to pick up many dialects, but have no real limitations keeping them from learning new ones. Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Elven, Giant, Gith, Kreen. Category:Races